When a fellow Chargers fan backed a car into John Bender’s grill and crushed its cover in the Qualcomm Stadium lot before yesterday’s game, Bender saw it for what it was.

An omen.

Bender, a nine-year season-ticket holder, has seen his share of playoff losses, and, sure enough, he saw another yesterday. Another promising season came to another disappointing close with yesterday’s 17-14 loss to the New York Jets.

In the parking lot afterward, Bender, 52, a construction worker from El Cajon, called the loss gut-wrenching because the Chargers were heavy favorites.

“It makes me think, ‘Am I going to renew my season tickets?’ ” he said. “I go through this every year, and when the bill comes I pay it.”

Many of the nearly 70,000 fans who attended the game began streaming out of the stadium’s gates with more than seven minutes left to play, venting their anger and frustration to skies that had just started spitting rain.

Someone yelled, “I’m tired of being a Chargers fan!”

Someone else called out, “I’m going to drink the pain away tonight!”

“How many times do you have to get to the playoffs and lose at the end?” asked Jon Stewart, 25, of Oceanside.

“It’s been happening for so long,” said Jamison Pavlick, 31, of Point Loma. “This was supposed to be the year.”

Some fans said the Chargers’ 13-3 regular season made for an enjoyable run, but others said the early playoff exit turned this season into a disaster.

“It’s the same thing over and over,” said Jeff Bouchard, 41, a season-ticket holder since 1991 who lives in Bay Park.

Ken Franklin, a season-ticket holder since 1979, was in a distinct minority yesterday when he deemed the season a success despite his disappointment.

Franklin, 52, an Oceanside schoolteacher, and his longtime friend Bob McNulty, 51, a software engineer living in Omaha, Neb., were among those leaving early.

“This was as good a year as any,” Franklin said.

“Ends the way they all do,” a disappointed McNulty said.

“It’s football,” said Franklin, finishing a beer before leaving Qualcomm Stadium and the season behind.

The morning began with such optimism. The sun sparkled. The barbecue smelled amazing. And parade after parade of fist-pumping, flag-waving Chargers fans marched through hundreds of green-garbed Jets fans and easily drowned out the chants of “J-E-T-S! Jets! Jets! Jets!”

That green was like seaweed in a sea of blue and white.

Smiles were everywhere.

Steve Weddle, the father of Chargers safety Eric Weddle, was saying this could be the year as friends and family devoured dozens of Dungeness crabs.

A face-painted Jake Wright of Lemon Grove, whose father lives in Indianapolis, was slyly admitting his friends and family had begun talking — but not planning — a trip there to play the Colts next week in the AFC Championship game.

Nanci Kirk, the owner of Papa Lulu’s in La Jolla Shores, was sporting a sequined LaDainian Tomlinson jersey and whispering that she had bought plane tickets to Miami two weeks ago for the Super Bowl, just to be “prepared.”

Yet in the end, again, all those hopes ended up like so many empty beer cans yesterday. Crushed. Rudely set aside.

“I don’t know what to feel,” said Bill Edson, 37, a sheriff’s deputy who drove from Palmdale to root on the team he has cheered for since 1992. “I’m numb. I thought this was the best team the San Diego Chargers ever had.”

After the game, Bender was bemoaning his bent grill and talking on his cell phone to a friend’s wife, a newer fan who was crying at the outcome.

“Just let it go now because you’ll kill yourself thinking about it,” he told her.

When Bender spoke again, he seemed unable to follow his own advice.

“It’s like this was our year,” he said into the phone. “It really was. We choked it away.”